


Exhaustion

by zestycheck (breathingfire)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epilogue, M/M, spoilers for the finale i guess, takes place like a week after story and song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 14:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11968884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathingfire/pseuds/zestycheck
Summary: Taako very rarely feels bad for putting himself first. This is an exception.Everyone is exhausted and emotionally vulnerable after the apocalypse.





	Exhaustion

**Author's Note:**

> so this started from a prompt meme on tumblr, “Wait a second are you jealous?” 
> 
> i know the title is Bad asdfghjk sorry. allergies r kicking my ass

“So how has work been, bubeleh?”

“Oh, you know - exhausting,” Kravitz mumbled through the Stone of Farspeech, and Taako could clearly hear that exhaustion. He didn't need to sleep, necessarily, but continually moving for as long as he has wears even on the Grim Reaper. Kravitz was still in the middle of cleaning up the fallout from the almost-end of the world, and they hadn’t properly seen each other in over a week. Even finding time to  _ talk _ was a bit of an issue, Kravitz was that busy. Taako was busy too, figuring out what to do with his life now that he could  _ have _ one, trying to find an apartment or something somewhere, coordinating things with people. Even so, Taako still often found himself laying on his bed on the moonbase, staring at the ceiling, wondering if he should call Kravitz, and wanting nothing more than to see him, touch him. It was frustrating in more ways than one.

“Tell me about it, handsome. Give me the deets. Anything super weird?” Taako asked, twirling a bit of hair around his finger. It was the first thing he could think of, and he just really wanted to hear Kravitz's voice.

Kravitz huffed a laugh. “As if this whole situation isn't  _ weird _ . I've rounded up  _ so many _ lost souls this week, and something tells me there's even more out there. The battle was chaotic, and there weren't exactly any reapers available to help the particularly confused ones, so a lot of souls just ended up wandering the Material Plane. And then we have to figure out what to  _ do _ with them, because according to the letter of the law they were refusing to pass on to the Astral Plane and therefore should be put in the Stockade, but there was an enormous set of extenuating circumstances. Really, this whole scenario is an exception the likes of which we haven't seen since Refuge,” Taako could hear his lips quirk up in a smile, “and then thousands of years before that.

“And then there's the opportunistic necromancers taking advantage of the massive amount of recently dead. They're complicating things, and while I really need to deal with them, I'm also trying to find all the innocent souls who deserve peace after their sacrifice.” Kravitz sighs.

“Hopefully Lup and Barry can help more with the cleanup soon. They're making great progress, you know, Lup is a very quick learner -”

“That's enough about work right now, handsome,” Taako said, voice rushed and a bit strained.

“Uhh, okay.” A beat of silence, then: “Was it something I said?”

And he sounds so sad, and so worried, and Taako's heart hurts a bit. “No, my dude, 'm just bored.” He put on his best sultry voice and leaned back into the pillows. “Let's move on to what I'm gonna do to you once I finally get to see your beautiful face.”

Apparently Kravitz knows him well enough to see through the blatant lie and diversion. “Taako, please, I really want to know what I did wrong,” he says, voice small in a way Taako had never heard before, honesty stemming from a deep exhaustion.

No matter how much Taako wanted to avoid the subject, he couldn't deny him the truth, not when he sounded like this. “It's just… it's not  _ fair _ ,” Taako whined, and he grimaced when he realized just how much like a petulant child he sounded, but he pushed through anyway. “It should be  _ us _ making out and hunting souls, not Lup and Barold.”

There was a heavy pause, then, “Wait, are you… jealous?”

Taako huffed. “I mean,  _ yeah! _ I don't even... I don't even get to  _ see _ you, my fuckin’  _ sister _ spends more time with my boyfriend than I do, she gets to see your gorgeous face every damn day and I'm reliant on what she decides to tell me, what's there not to be jealous of?”

“... You know I would be there with you if I could, right?”

Hearing his defeated tone, Taako felt the majority of the annoyance leave his body. “I know,” he whispered.

“And as much as I'd love to spend all of my time around you, I don't want you to become a reaper, at least not yet.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because I want you to  _ live _ , Taako. Becoming an agent of the Raven Queen is a permanent, life changing decision, and while I am appreciative of it, it just… it becomes your entire existence.

“We have all of eternity for that. Please, just enjoy what you have right now.” Taako heard him choke up. “What I never got to have.”

Well there goes the rest of his steam; now Taako just feels shitty. Instead of continuing the argument, Taako just swallows and whispers, “I miss you,” fighting back tears.

“ _ Gods,  _ I miss you too, Taako. I swear I'll see you as soon as I can, okay?”

“Okay,” Taako croaks out. And, because he's already this emotionally vulnerable so  _ fuck it _ , “I love you, Kravitz.”

“I love you too, Taako. More than I can describe.”

A deep sigh comes through the stone. “I have to go now, okay? But I love you and I swear I'll be with you as soon as I can.”

Taako sniffed. “Okay. See you soon, babe.”

**Author's Note:**

> so basically how soon after barry + lup become reapers do you think taako is like "hey i wanna get in on this too" and krav is just, no nonono
> 
> I actually debated for a long time about whether he'd have this convo with krav or lup but this was easier to write in the end
> 
> also this is a headcanon that almost everyone shares at this point bc its pretty implied in canon but krav died young (buried him in satin, laid him down in a bed of rooooses) *fingerguns*
> 
>  
> 
> feel free to follow my taz tumblr [@zestycheck](https://zestycheck.tumblr.com). I take fic requests + prompts.


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